The Attitude of the American Soldiers during and after World War Two - Essay Example

?[The attitude of the American soldiers during and after world war two] The attitude of the American soldiers during and after world war two World war two or the Second World War happened after the First World War. It started in 1939 and ended in 1945. Whole of the world nearly was involved in the war. The gravity of the war was such that the world was divided into two different blocks. The unrest that was created in Europe after the First World War was what set the stage for the Second World War. It looked as if there would no peace in the near future. There was a difference of twenty years between the First World War and the Second World War. Adolf Hitler who had made Germany unstable by his cruel targets in mind signed deals with Italy and Japan. He was a fanatic who had the aim of world domination in his mind and to him signing this deal would help him to a greater access to other countries of the world and help him achieve his aim of ruling the world. At the time Germany took over Poland, subsequently Britain and France declared war on Germany and they all fell in to a serious war with high casualties on both sides. The main reason the war broke out was, that there were a lot of unresolved issues from the first war. Countries still nursed injuries and had grudges against each other. America at first had shown its support for the allied forces but had never physically participated in the war. They had offered all kind of support to the allied forces and had said that if need arises they would surely help them out (Terkel, 1984). The soldiers were at a calm and peaceful state, they were aware there was a war going on and they were like sleeping partners in it. It was amazing that despite being a part of Allied forces, there was no sense of fear or tension in the American soldiers. They all thought that life was normal and would continue to do so. Only if some terrible news from the Allied army reached to them then the atmosphere would become somber. A soldier from the world war two said that, now as he thinks back he feels that it was like a serene and peaceful state, like calm before the storm. The soldiers went about their normal drills and there were no special drills or any other guerilla activities being conducted at the American camps. They were providing assistance to the Allied forces in the form of weapons and other arms. They were also providing assistance in the form of other material helps. It was a much sidelined place that they had in war earlier. They were psychologically at a stage of calmness and felt that they would not be harmed and they were at ease. There was a sense of security that the soldiers had, they felt as they were not attacking and physically harming any country they will not also face anything. No one will attack them and they can get through this war without any casualties. The Americans had lost a lot of people in the world war one and therefore they had quite much insecurity with sending their men again to a war. Although there was a sense of security in the minds of people and as well as soldiers, because many people assumed it as a false sense of security, because they felt, even if the soldiers are not participating in the war physically, there is proxy war by providing ammunitions and declaring your support for the cause. It was a matter of time before the American soldiers also got involved in the war. The soldiers on the other hand were at some point estimating that they might have to go in for physical combat or t some point they thought that they might get dragged into it. Whatever they though and felt, they were not prepared yet. They had a lot of things to be done and theirs bases were as and as peaceful as they would during the time of no war (Adams, 2000). While the whole world war is going in the backdrop the participation of Americans was limited to the table talks, cutting of trade ties and helping out by political conferences and maneuvers. This type of attitude made the soldiers believe that the war would be nothing more than a series of political talks for them and their participation would be next to none. The wrong signals from the headquarters also made them feel relaxed that there was no impending danger. The problem arose when the Americans cut down their exports to Japan in retaliation of the attack that was made on them. This made the Japanese take a more aggressive stance and thus, made them react in such a way that shook the Americans to the core. The Japanese considered American as a threat and therefore they felt that the best way to deal with the threat would be to destroy them from the base and to catch them unaware. They knew about the lack of activity and lack of preparedness that was prevalent in the US navy base at the Pearl Harbor. They attacked the harbor and caught the whole base unaware. This was a tremendous shock to the United States of America as they had never imagined that they would be attacked. The soldiers were all having a leisurely time at the base when first of the bombs fell. The result of the attack was traumatic. The main reason for the high amount of deaths that occurred was the lack of mental as well as physical preparations. The American soldiers were not psychologically prepared to face any kind of attack. There were thousands killed in the attack. There were many who died because of the shocks. The mental condition of the soldiers was very disturbed. They had all faced a trauma. At one time and moment they were all laughing and joking around and having a casual time and the next there are only screams, blood and broken buildings around. The soldiers who were there felt that it was the doomsday itself. They were very disturbed and at first chaos and confusion ruled the place. They were not at first able to register what has just happened to them. The soldiers were so disturbed psychologically that many of them felt that this was the end of the world they could not and would not survive what laid ahead of them and they felt that they would lose the battle. At first it was the psychological victory for the Japanese, as they had near about won it through the sudden attack as they had not only paralyzed the minds and bodies of American soldiers but also destroyed and damaged quite a lot of navy of the United States of America. It took them some time to recover from the sudden trauma that they felt and later when they had recovered they were under a serious kind of stress that made them hungry for revenge. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the American soldiers were so fueled with vigor and thirst for revenge that they wanted to launch into a counter offensive attack. The senior official’s also felt that the best thing would be to put a stop to their passive act in the war and launch into the war in a full fledge way. The Americans still thought that they should not go into full fledge war as they had already suffered a lot. As opposed to earlier considerations of not going to war by the American soldiers drastically changed into a want for revenge for their soldier mates. The attack had greatly hampered the navy of the US army and that was a key piece in their war strategy. The Japanese air power was quite sophisticated than the Americans at that time. The determination that the American soldiers had at that was like a steel wall. Despite being handicapped militarily and the soldiers were in serious need of proper medical as well as psychological counseling. Even these lacking was not a consideration to them anymore, all they were looking for was the revenge of their lost compatriots and the lack of war heads and instruments did not hinder them (Rosenberg, 1992). They were all driven by their adrenalin; they ignored their own pains and sufferings and moved ahead when they should have been nursing their own wounds. They went in and conquered all the places that they targeted and made the Japanese suffer badly. One thing very interesting came along during the research was that the soldiers had tied mementos on the bombs that they dropped to remind them of the hell that they had raised for the Americans by attacking them suddenly. They also wrote messages on the bombshells; this shows how deep the psychological effect was on the American soldiers. They were so driven by the thirst for revenge that they were not bothered about anything but revenge. Although, at the time of the war the soldiers were very powered up, but once they had had their revenge and the war time ended, there were many soldiers who came back with quite a lot of baggage. Many soldiers started feeling fear and stress soon after they embarked on their war missions. They felt lost and worried about their homes and they were depressed. The soldiers were not allowed to send mails to their homes. The mails reached homes after a month, and the replies were late in the similar fashion. This delay in mails and the absence of contact from back home de motivated the soldiers and many of them felt that they would never be able to reach their homes again. The soldiers felt that had left everything behind and there was no life to look forward to when they went back (Adams, 2000). When the soldiers started returning from the war areas to their homeland, they were very insecure, although they had a sense of victory after achieving the win on the world war, but they felt that they had now nothing left to do. It was also seen that the soldiers who came back had quite a lot nightmares, some of them even developed disorders that ranged from sleeplessness, insomnia and delusions. It is reported that many soldiers felt that the people they had murdered had come back to haunt them and they were guilty. Guilt was the most common problem that the returning soldiers felt; they felt that they were responsible for the deaths of thousands of people even though earlier they had reasons to justify their own actions. The returning soldiers had mental issues as well. Most of them had lost their families and for many their families had left them for better lives. It was very painful for them and this made them more reserved and many became hermits with a complete boycott of social lives. The soldiers started living in deserted areas and never returned to the social lives (Hillenbrand, 2010). Many of the soldiers had also become handicapped; this was an added trauma to the already disturbed people. They felt that they had become societal rejects and thy will never be accepted back into the societies. Also, a major reason for such behaviors was that there was a serious lack of recognition from the government itself. The soldiers were seriously pensioned up for the war effort and after giving their young years to war they were not recognized in the proper way as they should have been. This also increased the feeling of being abandoned among the returning soldiers. There were also those who had businesses and lands to come back to and hence this made their war efforts worthwhile. Also, soldiers who belonged to smaller communities had better recognition in their home towns where they were respected and treated as war heroes. This gave them a new spark to live for. References: Morison, Samuel Eliot. 1947. History of United States naval operations in World War II. Boston: Little, Brown. Adams, Simon. 2000. World War II. New York: Dorling Kindersley. Terkel, Studs. 1984. "The good war": an oral history of World War Two. New York: Pantheon Books. Rosenberg, Donna. 1992. World literature: an anthology of great short stories, drama and poetry. Lincolnwood, Ill. U.S.A.: National Textbook Co. Hillenbrand, Laura. 2010. Unbroken: a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption. New York: Random House. Read More